by DD Prince
“I’m so sorry, Jojo.” I reached out and gave her a hug. She sank into me and then looked at me and gave me a little smile.
“I like you for him. I met Ella just briefly. I really liked her. Ride says you’re her bestie?”
I nodded. “Since we were in kindergarten. But---”
“This is gonna be awesome. Us three can gang up against them. We gotta find the right girl for Spency. He’s a handful. He needs a strong woman. We’ll work together on that once I move to Aberdeen.”
“I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but me and Rider…” I winced.
She laughed. “Right. You’re as smitten as he is. It’s all over your face.”
I gawked. And then I shook my head. “No. I don’t … well, he and I aren’t… I thought we might, but I was wrong. And, yeah, I was a smitten kitten, but I’m not now. Because I have to keep my head together. Because he made things clear. He’s acting weird right now, but my guess is it’s just this drama.”
“You’re wrong,” she said, and with certainty. “And it’s the only thing making me happy right now, so I’m gonna hang onto his little bit of happy. Okay?”
I kind of just blinked at her.
She gave me a still-teary smile and dashed to the bathroom, a blur of pink bunny slippers and curly hair.
I stood there a minute, frozen.
When I was finished quickly fluff-drying my hair and putting a bit of make-up on, I wandered back out and heard Rider arguing with his mother before I got to the end of the hall.
“You’re the only one who gives a fuck about me, Ride. Your brothers are so cold. ‘Specially Spency. Now you’re taking Jojo? What about me? What. About. Me?”
“No, Ma. Joelle needs to be kept safe. We don’t fuckin’ know what else these bastards have planned. And Spence needs time. You gotta realize, all that’s happened is gonna have some lasting effects. And it wouldn’t hurt you ending your association with our enemies, Ma. Seriously.”
“I gotta support myself and you know your father cut me off. I didn’t know this’d happen. It ain’t my fault the Jackals hang out at the bar I work at. This ain’t on me. Your fucking father---. And I love you, Ride. You know I love you the most. But, you gotta take responsibility that you and your buddies dipped your wick and didn’t think about the consequences. Typical men.”
I felt sick at hearing that. And I, strangely, almost wanted to defend him.
“Stop,” he growled. “For the last time, that gash bullshitted. It wasn’t rape.”
“Sure as fuck looked like it.”
“You saw?”
“’Course I did. I told Mantis I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes, so he showed me. They put it on the big screen in the bar. Lotta people saw it.”
There was silence and I was flabbergasted at the idea of Rider’s mother seeing that video. At people in bar seeing that video?
“It was just a game,” he said. “A game that was Kailey’s idea.”
Ouch. Yikes. How could she watch that? And yet she still didn’t believe him despite his explanation? Had I missed something pivotal by not watching the whole thing or was she just… a c-word?
I backed up, thinking maybe I should go back to Jojo’s room to let these two have privacy, when I heard the horrible sound of a cat cry out. A tiny beautiful short-haired white cat with big powder blue eyes backed away, looking scared.
I squatted. “I’m so sorry, little kitty,” I whispered. “Did I hurt your tail?”
It blinked at me and then rubbed against me, purring. It forgave me instantly.
I scratched its head and noted it had on a black collar with a bell and some silver studs. A badass collar for a tiny white blue-eyed kitty with a very feminine face.
“Baby,” Rider called out, obviously having heard me. At the sound of his voice, the cat meowed loud and ran, faster than I could’ve anticipated, and I followed and saw her using her claws and climbing straight up Rider’s jeans. He hefted her tiny body up into one hand and she rubbed her forehead all over his chin.
I stepped in with a tentative smile.
Rider’s mother was leaning with her hip against the kitchen counter, her arms folded over her chest, a scowl on her face.
“I gotta go to bed. Haven’t slept yet,” Shelly muttered.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said.
“Mm,” she waved haphazardly in a ‘whatever’ gesture and looked to Rider. “Take that fuckin’ fur ball with you if you’re goin’ more than a day. I ain’t feedin’ it.”
Rider rolled his eyes, still scratching the purring kitty.
There was loaded silence. I looked at him and chewed the inside of my cheek, feeling awful about how she’d been toward him.
“How old is she?” I reached over and petted her head.
“Three or four.”
“She’s not a kitten? She’s so tiny.” She looked only about half grown.
“Nope.”
“How are you so tiny? What’s your name?”
“Marshmallow,” Rider answered for the kitty.
I laughed. And then I saw him looking at me with warmth and the cat wriggled and then pounced onto me. Her tiny little claws were felt through the thin hoodie of Jojo’s I was wearing.
I winced.
Rider carefully extracted her from my front and put her on the floor.
She did figure eights around my legs, purring her little heart out. And then she wound herself around his legs.
We watched her in silence a minute.
I heard the roar of motorcycle pipes. It sounded like multiple bikes. “One sec,” he said and then he moved to the door.
Jojo was rushing to us, in a robe, hair wet. “Ay yay yay. Breakfast. I gotta…”
I touched her non-casted arm.
“It’s okay. Why don’t I do that while you get dressed? Just tell me what to do.”
She brightened. “They’re here now so maybe we should just toast some bagels and take them on the road. Or we’ll skip it. There’ll be food at the club.”
“I can toast bagels,” I said.
She pointed to a bread box. “Bagels are in there. There’s cream cheese in the fridge. I like the dill. Ride likes the salmon. There’s also plain and strawberry. Brady won’t eat a bagel so just us three.”
“Roger.” I gave her a thumbs up.
Rider was back when I was half way through buttering the last bagel. He froze in his tracks and looked at me.
“Jojo is getting dressed so I’m on breakfast duty.”
I put strawberry cream cheese on it and wrapped it in paper towel.
Rider grabbed a bag from a drawer and tossed some bottled water and bottled juice in and then called down the hall. “Joelle!”
She rushed out, dragging a suitcase, dressed in jeans, heeled ankle boots, and a black t-shirt. And I’d been right. She had seriously sexy curves. No wonder her dad and brothers were so protective. “Get the other?” she asked.
He went to her room and came back with the black suitcase.
“Your stuff, Jenna?” he asked.
“Oh. My purse is on Jojo’s bed. I’ll get it.”
“Where’s the clothes you had on?” he asked.
“I left them in Jojo’s basket. They weren’t mine, so she said it was okay.” I gave him a glare and he looked like he was examining my face.
Jojo chuckled. “I repacked that hoodie with your stuff, Jenna. When we get to the clubhouse, I’ll get it washed so you can get it right back on.”
Rider’s eyes hit his boots, but he wasn’t even trying to hide his smirk.
“No need. I won’t be wearing that again.” I remarked, wiping the cutting board and putting the butter knife into the dishwasher.
Rider’s eyes cut to me and then his brows went up.
“I saw what was on the back of it. Haha, very funny,” I rolled my eyes at him, my face burning hot.
He looked at me with a deathly serious look on his face, but he said nothing. Though he said not
hing, my heart was racing, because if I could guess at the expression, he was telling me, without telling me, that I would be wearing it again. I didn’t hide my reaction very well. I looked away, feeling more burning in my chest.
“Time to go,” he said. “Joelle. Drive the Charger. Jenna, we’re on the bike.”
“I, uh…” I didn’t want to be on the back of his bike again. I didn’t want to feel that feeling again. Why? Because it felt like something I shouldn’t be allowed to feel after all that had happened in the past few days. The last night in my apartment, when we’d been on his bike was amazing. I wouldn’t feel amazing his time. It’d make me feel the full weight of what wouldn’t be.
“I’ll ride with Jojo,” I offered.
“No. You’re on the back of my bike.” He tossed keys at his sister. She caught them. He took both suitcases and the bag of breakfast stuff and left. Jojo disappeared down a hall and came back with a carrying case with little Marshmallow in it. She was blinking from the front of the cage, looking at me, as Joelle walked down the hall toward the door.
“What can I carry?” I asked.
“Oh. Shit. There’s a bag with her food bowls and stuff. It’s by the back door.”
By the back door down a short hall from the kitchen was a big bag with a disposable litter tray that was prefilled, and half a dozen cans of kitty food, a bag of kitty kibble, plus pink and white Hello Kitty food and water dishes.
I grabbed those and my purse, and followed Jojo.
Outside, behind Rider’s Charger, were several motorcycles parked with bikers standing in the driveway. They all had their eyes on me and Jojo. And their expressions were all hard.
With what was going on, I wasn’t surprised. But, I felt very self-conscious. And I was also feeling very exposed. Where was Rider? I looked around and heard the sound of a gate. He was pushing out a very vintage but what looked like a meticulously loved motorcycle from the back yard. I knew nothing about motorcycles, but I’d say this was lovingly looked after. Every inch of it gleamed in the sun.
He went to an older man with long greying hair and a tidy beard and said something. The man gave a chin jerk and reached behind into a storage bag on the side of his motorcycle and passed Rider a helmet.
Rider set the bike on its kickstand and then moved to me, grabbed my hand, and moved me forward.
“Brothers, Jenna. She’s mine.”
My heart did a flip-flop. What kind of caveman statement was that?
All eyes were on me. And with all eyes on me at a time like this, I couldn’t possibly disagree with him or tell him to go to hell. These men were dealing with the death of a member’s woman. And the possible framing of another death. Only days after a member was murdered and a prospect butt-raped.
All the hard faces softened at his statement. This, for some reason, made my heart race even more.
“Jenna, Rudy, Prez of the mother chapter,” Rider said and the man who’d passed the helmet shook my hand.
“Good to meet ya,” he said softly and kissed my hand.
“Hi,” I said. It said ‘President’ on the front of his leather vest.
“You know Brady and that’s Axel.” He pointed to a tall bald and bearded black man standing beside Brady who gave me a nod.
“Duckie.” He pointed to an older man with a big belly, long curly grey hair, and a beard as long as the ZZ Top guys. “That’s Bud.” He pointed to another biker, this one short and stocky with a goatee, maybe in his fifties, with piercing green eyes.
“Hey, Jenna.” Brady moved in and gave me a quick hug. It, thankfully, broke the awkward spell. He moved to Jojo and lifted her up off the ground and blew a raspberry on her cheek. She let out a little chuckle. He took Marshmallow from her and put the crate in the back seat of the Charger.
All the men moved in and gave me hugs, one at a time.
I sensed the heaviness in the air. Of course. A woman was left dead at their gates that morning. That they were here to escort two other females to safety felt kind of huge.
It was not the time for me to throw a hissy fit about being on his motorcycle or introduced as ‘mine’.
I noticed that Brady and Axel were both actively watching our surroundings.
“Time to ride,” Rider said and then he put the helmet on me. His eyes met mine and his expression was serious. My teeth sank into my tongue as I tried to hold myself together.
We rode with the president, Rudy, at the front. Two bikes were flanking him. Rider and I were behind him with Jojo driving the Charger behind us and then two motorcycles drove directly behind her.
The convoy drove only about ten minutes and then we were pulling up to gates. Gates that had police tape up around them and two squad cars parked beside the entrance.
We stopped, but kept idling, in front of the cop cars and Rudy waved at a cop. We then drove down a gravel lane beside the gate and a smaller gate was opened by a young biker in a prospect vest. The convoy moved in and I saw that we were in a yard with several big rig trucks that read Dominion Moving and Storage, several cars, and loading docks.
We drove around that area to a parking area in front of a big warehouse. The area in front of the place was filled with people. Bikers. Women. I saw people sitting on picnic benches under a covered patio area that was built off the side of the building. People looked like they were consoling one another. I saw people crying, people holding Kleenex boxes and passing them around. My heart grew heavy. Or heavier.
I also saw who had to be Edge, the faux-hawked guy from the video. He was sitting on top of a picnic table, with his head in his hands.
Rider turned the bike off. I got my helmet off and passed it to him. He passed it to Rudy and then walked us to the car where we met Jojo, getting out. She was looking around, looking confused.
“Jackals got Jet,” Rider said, letting go of me and taking her by the shoulders. “Didn’t wanna tell you till we got here. Dumped her body by the gates this morning.”
She did a slow blink. Rider pulled her close and she looked up into his eyes.
“Why?”
“Tomorrow. After Lick’s funeral. Tell you all of it then.”
She shook her head in confusion and I could see in her eyes she was trying to work out how it was all connected.
“Are they just randomly taking us out?” she asked. Her lower lip was trembling.
He pulled his lips tight.
“No?” she asked.
Rider kissed her forehead. “Later, Joelle. Okay? C’mon.”
She stood there, eyebrows furrowed. A young woman, maybe my age, with beautiful platinum blonde shoulder-length hair stepped up and put her arms around Jojo.
Rider took my hand and pulled me along and started to introduce me to people who were approaching. Bikers and women who were either with bikers at their sides, or who were maybe just there. And every time he introduced me, he said, “mine.” “Jenna,” he’d gesture, “mine.” Or, “this is Jenna, she’s mine.”
How did I respond to that? I decided on the spot that I couldn’t. I just said my helloes and my ‘nice to meet yous’ and eventually, I was introduced to a lady that engulfed me in a massive embrace after she’d kissed Rider right on the mouth.
“Aunt Delia, Jenna.”
He didn’t say, “mine” this time and I gave him a quizzical look.
She kissed me right on the mouth, too, and hugged me hard. I was a little bit taken aback, but she seemed so nice that I found myself putting my arms around her.
She looked like she’d been crying for hours.
“Patticakes is gonna give you some keys. I put you in the room I’d given your brother the other day since it has an ensuite. Joelle’ll be down the hall.”
“Thanks, Aunt Delia,” he said. “How you doin’?”
She threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t wrap my head around it. I can’t. Blow and two other boys were comin’ in early from a run and they found her. I didn’t see her. I got here an hour later. Thank God. I don’t think
I coulda handled it, Ride. That girl was like a daughter to me. She woulda been if Edge ever put a ring on her finger. And he’s a fuckin’ mess.”
He hugged her again. And then Rudy approached and pulled her to his side and I knew then, she had to be his wife.
I stood there, holding myself with my own arms, feeling the pain in the air like a living and breathing thing.
“Gotta give some sugar to your sister. How’s she holdin’ up?”
“She knows next to nothin’ yet. Keepin’ it that way till after Lick’s funeral.”
“Okay, well, I’ll shadow her until we get her to her room. She’s three doors down from you two. I’ll pass word around that no one gossips.”
Delia moved away from Rudy and then had Jojo, who’d been being hugged by a bunch of bikers ten feet from us, in her arms.
Rider took my hand and gave me a look. I didn’t know how to read it at first, but it didn’t take long for me to figure out what it was about. He moved us to the picnic table where Edge was sitting.
Edge looked up at Rider and his face? He was wrecked. Absolutely ravaged with grief.
I met Edge’s eyes and my stomach roiled. I saw a flashback of the video. I don’t know what his involvement was, because I exited soon after I saw his face, but I was glad for that. Now that I had to face him, I was relieved I didn’t know.
He stood, and Rider pulled him into a hug and pounded on his back.
“We’ll get them, brother. They’ll pay. So fuckin’ sorry, man.”
Edge pushed out a long breath and nodded and wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands, and then his eyes came to me. “Hey. Good to meet ya.” He moved in and hugged me. I went stiff. I couldn’t help it. I doubt he even noticed, though.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” I said.
I felt him take a broken breath and then he moved away. The look in his eyes was communicating something to me, but I didn’t know what. Rider grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. As I collided with Rider, Jojo was moving toward Edge, and she was red-eyed, and her chin was trembling. When she got to him, they both started to sob. My eyes welled up.
